Tuesday 18 September 2007

Commentary

A few weeks ago a friend drew my attention to this post on David Cauchi's blog. On the upside, he pairs me with Jim Barr and Mary Barr's Overthenet (yay!) - on the downside we're paired as his 'most hated johnny-come-lately art blogs' (ouch).

David hates my blog partly because the comments are turned off. I'd actually forgotten that I'd done this way-back-when, and just assumed that I got most of my comments in person. So thanks David, I've turned them back on, although I am going to moderate them - apologies if that insults your sensibilities.

The other reason David hates my blog is because it's anonymous. To quote:

I really dislike anonymous bloggers.

Part of it is that, if you don't think enough of your opinion to put your name to it, why should I care?

Another part is that it's one-way communication. They set themselves up in an unassailable position of power, with no transparency or accountability.

It's simply not an intellectually or morally respectable position to take.

I must say I quite fancy the idea of being in an unassailable position of power. Makes me feel ... powerful . Unassailably so. In reality, I know most of my regular readers, and I appreciate that they keep in touch with me this way. Anonymity stays, David - I guess you're stuck with not caring about my opinions.

Of course, if I'm flooded with requests to come out via the comments I may have to rethink that ....

2 comments:

David Cauchi said...

Ha ha, well done with the comments. Nothing wrong with moderation.

I'm afraid I'm not convinced by the 'this blog's for my mates, who all know me anyway' justification for anonymity.

If that were the case, this'd be a private blog. Since you consciously chose to have a public blog but to remain anonymous, it's reasonable to assume that you want a public voice but without any public accountability (maybe
'Best of both worlds' would be a better name, ho ho?).

To use a hypothetical example, you name other people on your blog and the possibility exists that you could defame them. In the highly unlikely event that that happened, what redress would they have?

Anonymous said...

i like the fact its secret - especially when you know the secret